In the field of graphical user interfaces (GUIs), many techniques have been used to scroll or pan items displayed on a display. In addition, it is often convenient to allow a user to move the items and to select items as targets of operations such as deletion, activation, and so forth. For example, many GUI environments include a launch interface or graphical desktop with icons or tiles that can be scrolled together, activated, and rearranged. Typically a different type of input gesture is used for each of these types of interactions with a scrollable surface and its items. That is, there may be different input gestures to scroll, select, and rearrange, respectively. Opportunities to streamline these types of interactions have not previously been appreciated. Increasing use of different types of input devices, in particular touch sensitive displays (displays that also function as two-dimensional digitizers), have introduced opportunities to improve the intuitiveness and usability of scrollable sets of items.
Techniques related to efficiently selecting and rearranging items in a scrollable collection are discussed below.